Am I ready to blog about “What I DIDN'T Like About My Childhood”?

My initial reaction: I just cannot remember anything that I did not like during my childhood days. I have so many pleasant memories but to think of unpleasant ones, it is really difficult. My wife always tells me that during arguments I try to evade the subject saying that I don’t remember things and that I put on an act of forgetfulness. Well, I hope that the amount of time that I am spending to write this post should convince her that I do forget quickly about unpleasant things.

I was stuck about what childhood stood for. I had to Google it and I found that the term childhood can be used till the age of 18 in most of the countries.

What did I not like about my early childhood? Maybe studying, though I don’t remember crying about having to go to school. I may not have liked my father teaching me as he was impatient compared to my mother when it came to teaching maths, though it was only once. I distinctly remember during my adolescent age that I never liked to lose in sports (cricket, table tennis, shuttle and carom) and I did not like it when my father encouraged my elder brother when we were playing against each other.

I was really stuck at this place for quite some time, actually a few hours, wondering what I did not like during my childhood, that I could not even sleep or rest.

I then had a great idea. I asked my father what I did not like during my childhood and his immediate response was you did not like to eat bitter gourd, did not like to work in his small garden and did not like to exercise or do yoga early in the morning. My mother’s response was that I hated to wear tie and tuck my shirt neatly and go to school. That the moment I came out of the school, I would remove the tie and untuck my shirt, and that I did not like to dance in front of relatives even though I had learnt how to.

And believe it or not, even today I don’t like any of these things. I guess I have not changed much over the years.

I really thank the admins for this topic. It made me realise the childhood that God has given me. The things that I have not liked are so petty. It may sound philosophical but I think this post has made me look back at my life and appreciate what everybody around has done for me or not done to me to make me feel so nice about my childhood. Thank you, whenmysoupcamealive for this topic.

Am I ready to blog on “He was so transparent that …?

Our 52-week project admins came up with this week’s theme, “He was transparent that …..” and suggested that we write an article using that sentence. My initial reaction about this topic was that it could be male bashing as one of the fellow members pointed out but I have been observing that many of them are based on love. And here is my transparent story.

He was so transparent that it was very difficult to find fault with him. He had built his name around transparency and he thought of it as a weapon to deal with people. His transparency and simplicity would always endear him to everybody. Faculty and students could always come with their problems both personal and professional to him and he would listen patiently and try to help them. He learnt over the years that listening to their problems with sympathy would always create empathy between them.

This transparency gave him the freedom to think, to shout at them, to chide them and to mend them. And it gave him a lot of confidence, though it could be misplaced in this selfish world that we live among.

And he always thought, Oh My God, is it necessary to be nice in this selfish world where people would call him at the middle of the night and complain that there was no power in the hostel, the warden call in the night and tell him that a student had drunk a mosquito repellant because he had not prepared for the next day’s class test, a faculty call and cry that she was abused by the parents in the middle of the night since she had scolded their ward and the student had threatened to commit suicide, a single parent committed suicide because her son was not studying properly in spite of her poverty.

And because he was so transparent, it showed on him. Listening to their problems, thinking about them always, trying to solve them, and trying to understand how they would react led to a deterioration in his health.

Was this transparency necessary in the first place?

People Watching

Am I ready to blog about people watching?
It is Sunday today and the last date is Tuesday. So I thought to myself, I better be ready to blog about people watching and write impromptu. I hope you enjoy it.
I initially got confused with the title, People Watching. Is it people watching me or me watching people do curious things? And I thought of writing about both.

People watching me
There was once a girl in her late teens commenting about me when I was in my first job that ‘there goes the PM Chandrasekhar’. I used to wear a vest like the one he used to wear. I was really taken aback. This was in Brindavan Gardens and my colleagues, a couple of women staff members who overheard the comment, were also taken aback about this unknown girl pulling my leg.

Me watching people
Yesterday I went to Yelagiri hills for a retreat for a day. And as I was walking with a camera hanging around my neck along the pathway around the lake looking at the trees, the boat rides and clicking some photographs of the spouse, and nature, there was a couple sitting with a 4-year-old. That kid seeing me immediately said, “Ammi, look, there is a photographer with a camera,” and the mother was pacifying him, “No, he is not a photographer. He is only a private photographer.” I was quite amused about the kid’s enthusiasm that he could get a photo of his and the dejection when he knew about me.

I have had the great opportunity of watching students doing different things. I stand at the gate and watch them come into the college and when they are late and repeat offenders, the way they avoid my gaze is very fascinating. Some of them even start running as soon as they near me, to avoid any comments/ scolding from me. And the excuses they come up with, when they take leave or have been on long leave, have always been enlightening.

On one occasion a parent told me that his son had told him that the Principal (I) would not allow him into the campus if he did not have a laptop of his own and the father bought him one taking a big loan and that kid was using the laptop to watch movies in the hostel!

I have also observed how students write during their exams. When I am on my rounds and go near them, the way the students try to cover their answer papers if they are not writing well has always made me smile inwardly.

And then I remember one of my grandfathers commenting when a batsman got out in a test match we were both watching together in Chennai about 25 years ago, “He must be shot for playing so recklessly!” So animated was he that I can’t forget him after all these years.